Any tourist RRs haul freight for $$$

[Flashwave]

Add the California State Railroad Museum's "Sacramento Southern" tourist line: they transfer cars of wood products between Union Pacific and Setzer Forest Products. They typically use an SW1 for the freight switching, rather than their 0-6-0 steamer.

Don"t they also have to throw down a temporary diamond across the UP to do so?

[Anonymous]

I think steam town does...if you count, them having CN running through the museum site

[spokyone]

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad who operates Rio Grande Scenic

The day we were there, one coach and 25 freight cars were returning from Antonito. Sorry, my pic was blurry!

[Mr_Ash]

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad who operates Rio Grande Scenic

[fafnir242]

I'm pretty sure that the Monticello Railway Museum has an interchange with the Norfolk Southern line somewhere in town.  Whether they do anything with it or not, I don't know.

[awalker1829]

TVRM's East Chattanooga Belt Railway handles limited amounts of freight and there is one industry on the TVRM main line. Occasionally a TVRM train will handle freight cars, but ECBT does most of the freight moves.

[jpwoodruff]

Colorado and Southern RW entertains tourists at Leadville using their track toward Climax.

It seems that the Climax molybdenum mine seems to be preparing to reopen shortly (moly prices are said to be historically high).  

Perhaps the railroad might refurbish and use their property for ore?  None of the news articles I've seen encourages this hypothesis, but maybe?

John 

[wjstix]

An interesting story (as related in Trains mag maybe 15 years ago) was the Crab Orchard and Egyptian RR. It was started by four guys in the 1970's as a steam powered tourist line in southern Illinois. It was able to expand it's trackage by taking over a branch line from a railroad, but had to agree to continue to serve the one or two industries still on the line. Eventually they found they were making more money from the freight than the tourists, and closed down passenger operations - making CO&E the sole steam-only / freight-only operation in the U.S. c. 1980.

[Carbarn O]

 

Jersey freight lines that have occasional excursions include the Morristown & Erie and the Susquehanna. Earlier mention was made of the Black River & Western and the Bev - Del River line. Down around Cape May there is freight and passenger operations but I forgot the name of the line.

[cnwfan51]

     The Bonne and Scenic Valley Railroad works the east side of Boone with both a lumber company and a steel manufacturing company they interchange with the Union Pacific near downtown Boone    Larry

[KayBee]

The West Virginia Central/Durbin & Greenbriar Valley has a freight operation. They interchange with CSX at Tygart Junction.

[New Haven I-5]

Add the Fillmore & Western

[mccannt]

The Mount Hood RR in Oregon still serves freight customers, mainly fruit packing businesses, between Hood River and Odell. The old Dee Lumber Co. mill further south, which the railroad used to serve, burned down in the late 1990s.

Incidentally, MHRR now has an operating steam locomotive to add to their three diesels. They acquired a former Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 off the Grand Canyon Railway earlier this year, and were supposed to have put it in service over the July 4 weekend.

In central Oregon, the City of Prineville RR, while not strictly a tourist road, does haul both freight and the Crooked River Dinner Train.

[Train 284]

The Yreak Western and the Mcloud River Railroad haul lumber.        

[Jetrock]

Add the California State Railroad Museum's "Sacramento Southern" tourist line: they transfer cars of wood products between Union Pacific and Setzer Forest Products. They typically use an SW1 for the freight switching, rather than their 0-6-0 steamer.

[crzink]

The SFS used to haul freight with their tourist excursions.  Go to www.texaswesternmrc.org and enter the website.  Then click "Club Activities: (at the top or to the left), then "SantaFe Southern/Cumbres-Toltec trip 2002".  Our HO club visited there in 2002, on the way to the Cumbres & Toltec.

On the run down to the mainline at Lamy, we picked up a couple of empty boxcars from the local beer distributer for interchange.

Decapod Driver
Webmaster, Texas Western Model Railroad Club
Ft. Worth, Tx.

 

 

[Anonymous]

The SAM Shortline, which is the "only mobile state park in Georgia" allows freight to be hauled from a CSX connection in Cordele, Georgia, to Americus, Georgia.  Not sure how much revenue goes into the SAM coffers, but freight is hauled on the line.

Erik

[JT22CW]

Add the Black River & Western to the list.  (The NH&I's neighbor across the Delaware.)  Also includes the Belvidere & Delaware River line.

[mudchicken]

Add Whitewater Valley RR to the list (by accident, they didn't go looking for the business)

http://www.stb.dot.gov/FILINGS/all.nsf/f9333daaab92d9da852572f100045a90/a3e630de8f7f2776852570d00071eb4a/$FILE/215305.pdf

 

[traintownofcowee]

I believe the Great Smokey Mountian Railroad hauls some feed to a chicken farm or something like that.

Indeed it does. I got a cab ride in GSMR #711. We went to Sylva and picked up five hopper cars, and brought them back to the shops for new break shoes. The railroad mostly hauls feed, but occassionally transports other stuff. I also got a tour of the railroad shops. I have pics of 1702 & 722 in there current condition!  

[WP_Malco]

Yes the Verde Canyon does haul raw and completed products to and from a Cement Mill in Clarksdale, AZ.   I do beleive it has two trips a week.

[PBenham]

The Arcade and Attica exists not because it hauls tourists, but because of the odd 100-125 ton grain hopper delivered to the line's owner's grain mill.

[Southwest Chief]

Durango & Silverton has hauled horses up to an isolated dude ranch, although they don't normally carry freight.

[wgnrr]

Mid-Continent should have #1 done in a couple of years. 1385 is useless, and Polson Lumber (Saginaw Timber) #2 is being worked on by it's owner (No, MCRWY does not own it). There was a lot of legal BS that MCRWY got into when #2 broke down at the 1998 Snow Train. The agreement to run it said that MCRWY could not take it apart. What did they do? Take it apart. There is a suit open, and they will end up paying for the repairs made to the engine--something they can't afford.

What would make sense for Mid-Continent to get is the 175, which is up in Houghton/Hancock, MI, but that is another story. It has a good boiler, but bad firebox. The 1385 has a bad firebox and a decent (I say this because they want to replace the entire boiler) boiler.

The Wisconsin Great Northern does not directly haul freight. However, they own or operate the Mineral Range Railroad in the UP of Michigan under the name of Vreeland Rail. As of 4 years ago, a freight operation would make or break the railroad. But, the railroad has been pulling along good.

Phil

[Cheese]

 

The Great Smoky Mountains Railway is the only one I know of and its already been mentioned. Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

Cheese

[espeefoamer]

When I rode the Mount Hood Railroad in 1995 it was hauling freight to a lumberyard on the line.The weekday train was a mixed if they had freight to haul. The day I rode we hauled some empties into the lumberyard,and picked up a few loads on the return trip.I do not know if the road still hauls freight,or if the mill is still operating.

[spokyone]

Last year we rode the Verde Canyon excursion train. Awesome. The web site  claims they haul freight. I did see some hopper cars in a quarry.
http://www.verdecanyonrr.com/history.htm

 

[Noah Hofrichter]

So the 1385 is out of commission?

(Again, let me add the disclaimer that I am not actually a member of Mid Contient, but living near it and having friends who do belong to the museum, I do hear some information from time to time on how certain projects are going.)

The 1385 has been out of service for a few years already, and things don't seem to be looking up for it. The Museum is talking about having a whole new boiler made for the thing as the old one is pretty well shot, but that would cost lots of money (were talking like 400 to 500 thousand dollars, and that's for the boiler work alone). Mid Contient simply doesn't have that much money and can't seem to raise it, or at least as an outsider it sure doesn't look like it. If they do turn a profit at all it is just barely on their passenger runs, and donors I think are getting tired of throwing money in what appears to be a bottomless pit without any real work being done. Right now there are other steamers on site that need less money for repairs and so they are concentrating a little more on those, but they do seem to still keep the restorating of 1385 in the picture. Right now though it's sitting around the yard in peices (I believe the cab is seperated from the boiler which is seperated from the frame and wheels, so many peices). Things sure don't look too good for the old girl, but there's always a little hope she could still steam again some day....

Noah

[vsmith]

I beleive the Sierra RR still does some revinue frieght service, as did the McCloud RR before it went under.

Oh and its not the narrow gauge Roaring Camp RR, but the Santa Cruz, Big Trees & Pacific RR, which is standard gauge, which still has some revinue service on it, both are part of the same company, but the Santa Cruz RR interchanges with the UP in Aptos ( I beleive, its been a while).